It has gotten so bad statewide the state Board of Education was forced to lower the "passing" mark for the writing test because so many kids flunked it. That would be the first hint that FCAT is meaningless.

But get ready — a new test is coming. It's called PERT, the Postsecondary Education Readiness Test, which is going to be required of most juniors and seniors. Like FCAT, this test is given just in Florida. Stand by. It's bound to be as useless as FCAT.

Here's a sample of what readers had to say about FCAT:

Students are sick of taking tests and teachers are sick of it, as are parents and even some administrators. The only people who seem to think these tests are a great idea are those who do not have to take them and are not held accountable.

One of the biggest issues I have with the climate of education in Florida is: What are we educating our students to become? Certainly not good citizens who understand participation in democracy. We aren't teaching creativity or critical thinking, two qualities that have allowed America to excel in world markets.

Oh, no! We will have great test-takers! Whoohooo! That's going to help my middle-school students as future citizens and productive members of society.

Is this a ploy by legislators to get votes? After all, election ballots are one of the only multiple-choice tests anyone takes once they are out of school.

Linda Edlund

Clermont

Although the FCAT may not reflect the true ability of a child to read and comprehend at a certain level, this is at least some accountability until the system plans and implements a better way for assessment.

My daughter-in-law is an educator in Palm Beach County at the high-school level. Her opinion — and that of many other teachers — is that holding a child back in the third grade until he or she can reach that level of reading and comprehension is imperative to the child's ability to learn throughout his life, not just while in school.

As a business owner for many years, I found an amazing number of people who have high-school diplomas but are functionally illiterate.

Unless the system forces children to learn to read earlier than the fourth grade, they will continue to be pushed through the system and will be limited all during their lives.

Kenneth Mack

Leesburg

I was a middle-school teacher for four years and a counselor for nearly 28 years in Orange County. I have been retired since January 1998, but testing was even overdone back then, and I was coordinator of testing at my school.

It was a task that wasted two weeks of my time between dealing with organizing testing rooms, orienting teachers, preparing and distributing testing materials and forms and returning them to be scored. It was a nightmare and a distraction from learning.

The testing has become even more complex, with different grades being tested, some on paper and some on computers. The students stay in their testing room all day so as not to disturb other grades, leaving only for lunch and recreation outside if the teacher elects to do that. And volunteer proctors are required, in addition to teachers.

Most of the school year revolves around preparing to take these tests, and the testing business has, of course, boomed in Florida and elsewhere as the states pay a fortune to private testing companies that compose the tests and grade them. There is considerable competition to get those extremely lucrative contracts, and the taxpayers foot the bill.

The sad part is that often-bright students who have high academic averages in high-level classes sometimes cannot pass the FCATs — probably an indication that the FCATs are confusing and not valid. Still, those same students go on to make acceptable scores on the SAT or ACT that can be used in place of FCATs for graduation.

Education should exist to help students grow up to live a better life, not to enrich testing companies or for politicians to try to make political hay. The money being thrown at these tests that really do almost nothing to benefit students and do disrupt actual education could be much better spent.